Chapter 493 Sentenced to Death

Chapter 493 Death Sentence

The current Zuo Shangdang was no longer the construction boss he once was. Now, he was just a manual laborer hauling loads.

He had no connections left.

With no other options, the couple could only plan to stake out the police station, hoping to see Lu Jin'an at least once.

"Xiao Ya, how much money do we have left at home? Take it all out. We’ll go to the police station and see if we can find someone to get special permission—just to see Jin'an once."

Zuo Shangdang's voice was heavy with exhaustion.

Lu Yazhi, who had been sniffling between sobs, froze for a moment, her gaze evasive. "It's... it's all gone."

Zuo Shangdang looked up in shock. "How can there be no money? Not long ago, I found over five hundred yuan from your father's savings and gave it to you to keep.

"All the household expenses lately have been covered by what I earn each day. I’ve been buying groceries on my way home after work. How could the money in your hands be gone?"

At this point, Lu Yazhi didn’t dare hide it anymore. "Sob... sob... A while ago, Jin'an came back and asked me for it. I gave it all to him. Ai Xiaoqing’s illness is like a money pit. He begged me so desperately—how could I just stand by and watch? I couldn’t bear it, sob... sob..."

Zuo Shangdang felt utterly helpless. Lu Yazhi’s crying no longer stirred his heartache—instead, it filled him with endless irritation.

"Would you just stop crying?!"

Lu Yazhi stiffened at Zuo Shangdang’s sudden roar, tears welling in her eyes, too afraid to fall. He had never spoken to her in such a tone before.

Seeing her shrinking in fear and helplessness, Zuo Shangdang softened his voice.

"Stop crying. You're giving me a headache. What we need now is to figure out how to see Jin'an and understand what’s really going on. Crying won’t solve anything, understand?"

Lu Yazhi nodded numbly, choking back sobs. "A-alright, I won’t cry. Shang Dang, please, you have to help Jin'an."

The couple arrived at the police station just as the authorities were looking for them to question them.

They were led to separate rooms for questioning.

Lu Yazhi trembled with fear, constantly kept looking back for Zuo Shangdang.

As he followed another officer, Zuo Shangdang turned back to reassure her. "It'll be okay. Just answer whatever the officers ask truthfully."

Inside the closed room, Lu Yazhi shifted anxiously in her seat.

An officer tried to calm her, "Just relax. Just answer our questions honestly."

"Name."

"Lu Yazhi," she said.

"Date of birth."

"November twenty-seventh, nineteen forty-five," she replied.

"What is your relationship with Lu Jin'an?"

"I’m his mother," she said.

"Do you know Ai Xiaoqing?"

"Yes," she said. "She... she's legally my daughter-in-law."

"What was Lu Jin'an and Ai Xiaoqing's relationship like normally?"

Lu Yazhi snapped to attention, "Why are you asking this? Could the deceased be Ai Xiaoqing?"

The officer stopped writing and looked up at Lu Yazhi, "Yes, the deceased is Ai Xiaoqing."

Lu Yazhi suddenly felt confident, "Then you've got it all wrong. Let me tell you, my son's kindness toward Ai Xiaoqing was well-known—it even made the newspapers. How could he possibly kill her? He treated her like a princess, even forgetting about me, his own mother. For that ugly nobody Ai Xiaoqing, he forced me to give him money twice..."

As she recounted how her son had treated her for Ai Xiaoqing's sake, Lu Yazhi was overwhelmed with grievances.

If her son had shown even the slightest concern for her, his own mother, she wouldn’t have endured Zuo Nanfu's abuse in silence for so long.

"Ai Xiaoqing was nothing but bad luck. My Jin'an was such an outstanding boy, but she dragged him down to this miserable state. I never made him lift a finger his whole life, yet for that wretched Ai Xiaoqing, he even wiped her ass. Look at how she degraded my Jin'an! Just remembering it kills me."

As she spoke, Lu Yazhi began wiping away tears, her voice filled with resentment.

Without the officer even prompting her, she launched into a tirade of complaints.

She went on about how her son had suffered, endured, and was driven half-mad for Ai Xiaoqing.

The officer's expression grew increasingly grave as Lu Yazhi vented.

It seemed this was the motive behind the suspect's crime.

Their love story had once been featured in the newspapers, yet in a short time, Ai Xiaoqing was killed in broad daylight by her "model husband." The incident quickly spread and was covered by newspapers and magazines in City A, sparking public outrage.

With eyewitnesses who saw Lu Jin'an commit the crime, Lu Yazhi's unwitting confession, testimonies from hospital staff and patients, and Lu Jin'an's own admission of guilt under the officer's warning of "leniency for confession, severity for resistance," the case was wrapped up quickly.

His verdict came quickly.

Death penalty.

Lu Jin'an refused to accept it and appealed.

From behind bars, he howled, "Didn’t you say 'leniency for confession, severity for resistance'? I confessed! Why am I still sentenced to death? You lied! Liars, all of you!!!"

"I don’t accept this! If it weren’t for me, Ai Xiaoqing would’ve died from her illness long ago!"

"I poured a fortune into keeping her alive. Even if I lost control and strangled her, I was just reclaiming what was mine!"

"She had cancer—she was going to die anyway! Even if I hadn’t killed her, she was already a dead woman walking. Why sentence me to death?"

As he ranted, Lu Jin'an broke down in tears. The terror of the firing squad consumed him.

"I was wrong! I truly know I was wrong! I cooperated! It wasn’t intentional—I was at my breaking point! Ai Xiaoqing ruined everything for me, and I lost control! Please, put in a good word for me! As long as it’s not execution, I’ll serve time in prison! I really know I was wrong!"

Zuo Shangdang and Lu Yazhi repeatedly requested visitation. Finally, after the verdict, it was approved—but only for one person.

Lu Yazhi insisted on going herself.

Though not the sharpest tool, she understood the chances of saving Lu Jin'an were slim. This might be the last time they’d ever meet.

After the visit, Lu Yazhi fell seriously ill with a high fever.

Zuo Nanfu, paralyzed from a stroke, had long been neglected. Bedridden, bedsores soon festered from lack of care. Zuo Shangdang only tended to him once a day, skimping on his meals to save trouble.

Starved and with festering wounds, Zuo Nanfu deteriorated rapidly.

After Lu Jin'an’s incident, he was left to rot for days.

Only after Lu Jin'an’s fate was sealed did Zuo Shangdang remember his starving old man.

Returning home in dread, he found his father had already passed—gone to meet his maker.